Shoe



INVENTOR Nov. 12, 1935.

P. JOHNSON 2,021,067

SHOE

Filed April 12. 1934 L110 0 n n a 55 WITNESSES 1 /2171}; I jo/msoiz BY 1 ATTORNEY Patented Nov. 12, 1935 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SHOE Application April 12, 1934, Serial No. 720,294

3 Claims.

This invention relates to shoes, an object of the invention being to provide a shoe in which the outer portion or half of the shoe at the heel constitutes a spring heel and inner portion or ,5 half constitutes a drop heel.

Ashoe of this form and construction has many advantages, some of which may be enumerated, as follows: It is, of course, desirable that the weight of the body be carried largely by the outer portion of the foot to relieve abnormal strains of the inner longitudinal arch, and in constructing shoes, especially for childrens wear, the spring heel type of shoe has its advantages which are utilized and I do not destroy the effectiveness thereof, but, at the same time, I provide at the inner portion of the shoe a drop heel which gives an improved bearing surface and promotes the support at the inner corner of the heel by flattening and squaring the heel surface, overcoming the rounded corner at the inner border of the ordinary spring heel commonly placed upon socalled spring heel shoes, and I thereby support the heel at a most desirable point and overcome the usual weakness of the spring heel.

I increase the support of the heel and arch by direct vertical upward pressure at the inner corner of the shoe heel, and, at the same time, utilize the outer spring heel construction at the outer side. The best elements of both the spring heel and the breast heel are utilized to provide an increased heel surface and an increased thickness at the inside corner of the heel. The purpose of increasing the heel surface in this manner is to secure greater uniform area for better balance and to overcome the tendency of shoes with so-called spring heels to rock and bear the body weight unevenly, and, furthermore, the increased thickness at the inside corner of the heel, due to the construction, actually takes the weight placed upon it instead of moving it to any place upon the heel surface where the finishing happens -to be uneven. The so-called spring heels are built up in an attempt to elevate the arch but in so doing an unevenness is created which will tend to cause rocking of the heels.

It is, of course, to be understood that the footwear may be of all kinds, made of leather, rubber and composition soles and heels, and my invention readily lends itself to orthopedic correction.

With these and other objects in View, the invention consists in certain novel features of construction and combinations and arrangements of parts, all of which will be more fully hereinafter described and pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawing- Figure 1 is a perspective View illustrating my improved shoe;

Figure 2 is a bottom plan view;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary view in rear elevation; 5 Figure 4 is a fragmentary outside view of the rear portion of the shoe.

l represents the shoe upper, 2 the sole, and 3 the heel of my improved shoe. In constructing my improved shoe, with relation to the heel 10 thereof, the sole at that portion of the shoe, known as the shank, is cut or sliced transversely from its inner edge to a point at approximately the center of the sole, this out or slice being indicated by the reference character 4. A suitably l5 shaped filler piece 5 constitutes a part of the heel so that at the inner portion of the heel a breast 6 is provided, and due to the flare of this portion of the heel the latter projects outward beyond the welt, as indicated clearly at I, particularly in 20 plan view Figure 2. In forming the heel, after the slit or cut is made, the heel portion is drawn away from the welt and the filler piece, or under heel piece 5 as it is commonly known, is squared off at the so-called spring or breast for approximately the same distance as the length of the cut or split on the sole.

The usual welt I0 is secured to the upper in any well known manner and this welt extends across the full area of the heel and is in contact with a wedge-shaped filler piece l l and the filler piece 5.

As shown more particularly at H in Fig. 4 the filler piece 5 adjacent the outer side andwhere the outer edge of said filler piece is in contact with the spring portion of the heel is sheared off or tapered along the front edge to prevent undue thickness at this portion of the heel.

The breast portion, designated by the numeral 6, is what I term for all purposes a drop heel and is to be so considered wherever used in the specification and the claims. In other words it is that portion of the heel defined by the breast portion 5 and where the shank of the sole after having been slit has been elevated.

The above description applies to the making of a shoe wherein a complete spring heel construction is transformed into a heel having the outer portion constituting a spring heel and the inner portion a drop heel, but it is, of course, to be understood that in manufacturing the shoe any method may be employed which will result in the provision of a shoe having the shape of heel set forth, as it is not my desire to be lim ited to specific details of construction, but I desire to cover broadly the idea of a shoe which 55 has an outer spring heel portion and an inner drop heel portion as defined, and I, of course, wish it understood that in employing the term shoe I do so in the broadest sense to include any type of footwear.

I also preferably cut away or thin that por-' 'tion of the shoe sole adjacent the drop heel to V I give greater flexibility to the shank at that point.

This combination heel does not disturb the foot fiexion along the outside border of the shoe as it will allow the entire outer border of the foot to rest naturally along the ground surface from the back of the heel to the base of the fifth toe. By the combination of the square-breasted heel and the spring heel the inside border of the heel can be twisted or wedged to elevate the insiderfront part: of the heel of the foot without changing the tread of the shoe along the outside border or the tread of the sole along the inside border.

' While I have illustrated the sole portion of the shoe as being sewed and the heel portion as being nailed, it is obvious that the shoe may be made according to any desired method, and while I have illustrated and describedra preferred embodiment of my invention, it is to be distinctly understood that I do not wish to be limited thereto but desire to cover the invention as broadly as set forth in the following claims.

I claim:

1. A shoe having the outer half of its heel constituting a spring heel and the inner half of 10 face of the heel being positioned behind the in- 20 side longitudinal arch.

' PHILIP T. JOHNSON. 

